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Catalan shape-shifter, Rosalia, spreads delight with her stringy new single

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Alexis Petridis is a superb music journalist. He has enormous enthusiasm and curiosity, encyclopaedic knowledge and a really broad range of interests.
This week he reviewed the new album by Catalan superstar, Rosalia’, LUX, and gave it 5 stars. This is how he described it.

A demanding, distinctive clash of classical and chaos that couldn’t be by anyone else. The Catalan star’s monumental fourth LP features lyrics in 13 languages, references to female saints, the London Symphony Orchestra – and Björk on ‘divine intervention.’

He was preaching to the converted in my case. I’ve been listening to Rosalia ever since she emerged as the new voice of flamenco.

And I was really lucky to get a chance to enjoy her MOTOMANI show at the Roskilde Festival in 2023. She sings almost exclusively in Spanish but the enormous Arena Tent, which holds 10,000 people, was packed with young Danes who were keen to see her.

I sent Alexis’s review to my cousin, Andy, in Australia, and he became interested and went off to his local Sidney public library, and borrowed her first, very flamenco. album. That ís rather like reading a review of Bowie’s Station to Station and then borrowing Hunky Dory from the library.

The video for Berghain, the single from the new album, is very witty. I hope I can inspire you to explore Rosalia’s new album and her back catalogue. One can say a lot of things about her, but she is never boring,

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Comments

  5. I love it! It has the intensity and drama of opera, without the boring bits. She has an amazing voice and a unique take on musical form and structure. She is full of surprises. This album is way better than any of her others and is one of the best of the year, if not The best.

  6. It is a wonderful record, and interesting that she’s not felt the need to head further down the Pop road after Motomami. It sounds a lot more like El Mal Querer.

    I have Magnolias as the pick, but it’s pretty much all good. Still doesn’t top my favourite Rosalia track though, which remains Beso.

    She’s one of the best live performers I’ve seen in recent years; a phenomenal voice, a magnetic personality and she somehow threads the needle of putting on a high production value “performance” with all the bells and whistles, while managing to keep it organic and grounded. Will try to see her again if and when she tours this.

    All of that said, I can’t get on with Alexis Petridis. Think it’s mainly the sideburns on his Guardian profile picture.

  7. I’m glad to read that Rosalia has several fans on the AW.

    There’s a lot to explore on the TUBE

    She is a woman with many faces, and many genre..

    Not a girl who does things by halves…

  8. Can anyone tell me why her album ‘Los Ángeles’ is now unavailable except by paying exorbitant prices to second-hand vendors? As a modern flamenco album, it’s likely the only one of hers I’d be interested in hearing, but it’s just fallen down a well it seems.

    • That’s surprising. It is still on streaming sites, so can’t understand why there aren’t physical copies still available. I haven’t heard it so can’t comment, but El Mal Querer, her following album, still has strong flamenco influences informing her overall pop sound, and is terrific.

      Needless to say, because she is white and Catalan, and was fusing flamenco with other musical forms, she was accused of cultural appropriation, because, you know, blue men can’t sing the whites etc etc etc….

      • Thanks, I should have been clearer that I do own El Mal Querer, and that I also have Motomami – but I can’t stand the latter! I am not inclined to investigate Lux on the basis of what I’ve seen and heard on YouTube.

        Hence the gap is likely just the Los Ángeles album, which I’m prevented from buying as it seems to have succumbed to Spanish bombs in Andalusia.

        • With you on Motomami – but Lux is way better and builds on the flamenco influence in El Mal Querer. I think Berghain is great but if that’s putting you off it isn’t really typical of the album.

          • Thanks for that insight – it was indeed that cacophonous track that put me off. It was also responsible for how I was befuddled by Bingo’s first para that says the new one is more like El Mal Querer; that wasn’t what my ears had just told me.

    • Absolutely – I’m right back there, brushing away flies as I climb the long walk up the Cobijadas road to Vejer de la Frontera, taking comfort when I can from the shade of the occasional orange tree beside the road, and watching a glorious pair of Golden Eagles circling above the valley off to my right. The bulls will be running in the street tonight, and dust is getting in my eyes.

  10. My conversation about Rosalia with my cousin in Sydney continues.

    This morning he sent me this slip about women’s life during the Franco era.

    https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct6wql

    and commented..

    This nightmare began 1969 and now look at what Rosalia can get away with!

    He also recommended that I read Rosalia’s wikipedia page.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosal%C3%ADa

    She is such an enormous star in Spain.

    Here she is with Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar filming the washing scene from DOLOR Y GLORIA.

    And here’s the scene

    Franco would be turning in his grave if he knew that Pedro and Rosalia would be among Spain’s biggest international stars in 2025.

  11. This interview is very enjoyable. The two journalists are big fans and have interesting questions to ask.

    She speaks English very well. But she chooses to sing in Spanish,.

    BIG IN MADRID is not enough for her.

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